A Chance to Prove Ourselves
by leafs nation
Summary: Not wanting to turn away people in need, Clementine invites Randy, Patricia and Gil into Howe's Hardware. After weeks of walking with very little food, the trio are overjoyed at the prospect of finding a place like this. But how well can they adapt to this new environment, along with the seasoned women who dwell within?
1. Welcome to Howe's

"Come in."

Their faces light up like Christmas trees upon hearing the words, those glorious, angelic words that have finally beckoned for them to stay in a place where they can finally feel safe. Smiling with mirth, Randy can hardly contain his excitement as Patricia squeezes onto Gil's shoulder tightly.

"Thank you…" she says in genuine appreciation, relieved knowing that they won't have to sleep out on the road again.

Nodding her head, the eleven year old invites the newcomers around the side as she coddles the baby in her arms. The little guy lets out several cooing sounds as his big sister rocks him back and forth gently; like a sailboat out in the ocean on a calm, starry night.

As the two gatekeepers disappear back into the hardware store to briefly talk things over, Randy lets out a huge breath that he hadn't realized he was holding in. At least he didn't need to pull out the gun from his back pocket – he wasn't entirely sure about whether or not they'd be meeting some friendly faces for a change.

"Told you it'd work out," he boasts, lightly nudging Patricia as she rolls her eyes in amusement. "See, Trish? Our luck's finally starting to turn around."

"Can't be any worse than that roller rink in Boston. Place was a nightmare…" she recalls, feeling her husband lightly clutch onto her hand as she plants a kiss on the top of her son's head. "We need to do everything we can to make it right by these people, okay sweetie? Why don't you try talking to the younger girl in there when you get a chance? Maybe you can make a new friend."

Always having been more of an introvert, especially after the… _incident_ , Gil gulps once before reluctantly nodding her head. He only had to see the two women on the other side of that fence for a few seconds to tell that they aren't exactly your average run-of-the-mill survivors. Both of them looked extremely suspicious of outsiders, and neither of them seemed to be that friendly to the eleven year old boy. He's tried to be friendly with people before, but it's mostly just lead to smack him right back in the face.

Gil can't handle another place like back home in Ohio… it… it's just too painful for him to think about…

" _Maybe we can start something here, Jane."_

Little do the two of them know that the family can hear bits and pieces of what they're saying, and from what they can tell, it sounds as though they may have been through some pretty crappy stuff recently. As Randy had put it, they're all walking a tough road – nobody's had it easy, and those that claimed that they did? Liars, every one of them. Everybody's been affected in one way or another, even if they didn't exactly have loved ones to begin with.

"This must be it over here," Randy comments, following his wife and son over to a side door labelled _Emergencies_ Only. Still looking fairly impressed by the fortifications of this place, he briefly traces his fingers over some of the wooden barricade. Despite noting that this place could use a lot of work in order for it to return to a more liveable solution, he's got to admit – these girls managed to find one hell of a setup.

" _Just keep your eyes on 'em. We'll be fine,"_ the older woman (Jane, they think her name was?) mutters behind the steel door, and before any of them know it, Randy, Patricia and Gil are welcomed inside the hardware store.

Stepping inside first, just out of force of habit, Randy adjusts his glasses as he marvels at all the space that they have in here. They could fit an entire army in here if they wanted to, yet they are the first people to be accepted. Do they really not like company _that_ much?

"My name's Patricia," she introduces herself, trying to spark a conversation with the stoic, short-haired woman as she stands there; awkwardly keeping to herself.

"…Jane."

"Thank you, Jane."

"Don't mention it."

Deciding just to go for it, seeing's how she can barely express just how thankful she and the rest of her clan are to have finally found a place they can possibly call home, Patricia quickly wraps her arms around Jane's shoulders and hugs her tightly; startling her so much that she widens her eyes. "Thank you so much…" she murmurs, grateful that her boy won't have to be put in danger tonight for a change.

Assuming that nothing else has gotten in here, of course.

"O-of course…" Jane replies, not used to such close contact unless an actual purpose is involved. It has to have meaning – an incessant tap on the arm to tell someone that danger's ahead, two hands on a young girl's shoulders as she's told to back away from a fight with an old friend that she's known for years… a brush-off after the fight has taken place and said girl wants to be alone.

But this? This… _touching_ … it's a completely foreign concept to her. Jane was always used to having to shove Jaime away whenever she tried to get close back then, and that isolation continued into her adult years.

Gil, seeing that his mother doesn't appear to have much of a problem making conversation with the new people, turns his gaze over to the young girl with a baby nestled up against her sternum. There's not a whole lot that fazes him anymore, not with all the death that's been surrounding them, but talking to people has always gotten him to pause and freeze in place.

Opening his mouth to say something, but then closing it a second later as the girl still has her head turned away from him, Gil comes up with the only thing that he can think of at the time.

"Cool hat."

Perking her ears up a little bit at the compliment, Clementine stays quiet for a moment before lowering her face to the floor steadily. She's still unsure if she had made the correct decision by letting them inside, as Jane's doubts have really mirrored her own, but she has to believe that the two of them can make it better.

And perhaps that starts by letting people back into their lives, if only a handful of them.

"Yeah…" she trails off, glancing back to Randy's pocket as she wearily eyes the pistol sticking out. "Thanks."

* * *

Without a can of corn or pack of medicine to their name, and having been walking for weeks with barely anything but the clothes on their backs, to say that the trio have found their little slice of paradise would be a massive understatement. If it weren't or Gil noticing the road sign on the way over here, they likely would've never even thought to look for Howe's Hardware. Randy was slightly worried that they may have been getting their hopes up again, and really didn't want to see Gil going another night without food, but thankfully, it seems that their prayers have been answered.

The place reeks like decaying corpses, and the blood-stained walls and floors is a little unsettling, but Randy can also detect the faint scent of wood shavings, metal rods and other appliances in the air long after many of them have been cleared out. Working in the construction field, he's come across his fair share of tools and supplies – working on the barricades and whatnot is going to be a snap. Now, if only he could find the building materials to work with, then he'd be all set.

But first things first – he needs to figure out just where his family stands in this new-found encampment.

"So… when exactly did you two get here, anyways?" he asks, trying to get to know his fellow inhabitants a little better. "I mean, no offense or nothin'… but you two look like you've been through hell. Did something happen?"

Glancing back at Clementine as the two of them lead the family down the long hallway to give them a bit of a grand tour, Jane notes how the girl shrugs her shoulders in response. What harm could it be to answer a question like that?

But the wounds of her time before and after the restaurant, not just limited to the physical pain of her stab wound still buried deep within her thigh, have Jane's lips mostly sealed on the matter. Until she can learn to trust them, which at this point might be a big, fat NEVER, then Jane's got some secrets that she wants to remain concealed.

"Just arrived a little before you did, actually. Probably an hour or so," she mentions, purposely neglecting to tell them that they had been here before. "The place was just sitting here ripe for the picking – barely a walker in sight."

"Quite a find," Randy nods, stopping to admire the various shelves of leftover food. There might not be a surplus of goods laying around, and he might not be entirely incorrect in saying that their stocks are getting kind of bare, but _some_ food is better than _no_ food.

Gil's stomach rumbles in anticipation as Clementine grins at him slightly.

"…oh my god!" Patricia gasps as everyone suddenly turns towards her voice, with Clem and Jane giving each other knowing glances as they both realize the horrible discovery that the woman has just made. They meant to dispose of the body like old trash at some point after checking out the greenhouses, but with the added surprise of three new members into the fold, they had completely forgotten about it.

Stepping through to the docking bay, Jane tries to come up with an excuse of why Carver's body, with his face all mashed up beyond recognition, is sprawled out on the concrete.

"We, uhh…" she stutters, trying to find something believable to say, "this guy was here when we got inside. It was pretty disturbing for us, too… We just never got around to moving him out…" she explains, not entirely lying since neither she or Clementine had to stand witness to the killing for themselves.

Turning his young boy around so that he doesn't have to look at the gory mess, Randy lightly turns Gil around before he steps inside. "Why don't you go check out the rest of the place for us down here, son? Just be careful and come straight back if you find anything out of place," he says, ignoring his son's look of protest as he points out to the main hall.

With little to no hope of getting past his dad due to his massive size, and figuring that it's probably not worth seeing anyways, Gil sighs before obliging and turning away.

Not before he gets another unexpected surprise, however.

"I'll go with you," Clementine states, still clutching onto AJ as he snuggles up in his blankets. With Jane preoccupied trying to move the body out so that it won't fester and rot any further, she's really got nothing better to do. "C'mon, I'll show you something cool upstairs."

* * *

 _AN: Hey there! Yes, I know that I've got a lot of unfinished stories to write about right now, but I just had to get this one down. I'm gonna try to make this feel as if it was actually canon to the story, but obviously we won't fully know about the family until season 3 is released._

 _This is just my interpretation of what they might be like. From the brief amount of time that we've seen them, they actually seem like a pretty decent bunch._

 _So yeah, this isn't going to be very long. Maybe five or six chapters I'm thinking, just about how Jane, Clem and the rest start to transform Howe's into a community again._


	2. Fortifications

Setting AJ down comfortably on the wooden desk, Clementine waits for Gil to step inside as he starts to take a look around the office. Somehow, the room seems a lot less dark and foreboding than when she had first arrived up here, but Clem figures that that was probably because she and the rest of her group were essentially being held captive for slave labour beforehand. That can kind of put a damper on how you see things.

Now with Carver and the rest of his pals gone, the room actually looks pretty warm and cozy inside. Clementine remembers from when she was very young that her parents used to watch TV shows about crime scenes and murder investigations, and usually those police stations would have at least one office just like this one, if not a few more on top of that. Pictures lining the walls, a big, comfy office chair at the front desk, books spread across a shelf over on the side, and the view over the hardware store is actually pretty cool to look out of.

"Whoa…" Gil whispers, looking pretty impressed himself as he sits in the chair and chuckles at how big it is. As soon as his butt hits the cushion, he practically sinks straight down.

Clementine, only half paying attention right now, spots the torture chair over in the corner and instantly goes to set it somewhere else. Gil's got no clue why she'd be doing such a thing, still thinking that she's as new here as he and his family are, but doesn't say anything as the girl drags the steel legs across the floor. Alvin's blood is still planted on the floor in certain places, only succeeding to make Clem's skin crawl.

She can't help but wonder if Tavia and the rest of them had cleared out big Al's body before making a hasty retreat.

"What did you want to show me?" Gil asks after a little time spent spinning in the office chair. The boy could potentially spend the entire day just trying to look over everything in sight, but he wants to get to the nitty gritty stuff first.

Seeming to remember why she invited him up here in the first place, Clementine raises a finger patiently as she heads behind the desk; opening up the drawers and scrounging around inside. In her urgency upon sneaking into here the first time, she didn't really have a whole lot of time to sort through the various assortment of items stashed away in Carver's desk, but she had noticed a handful of things that could've been enjoyable to toy around with if she had the opportunity. A full deck of cards (which Jane would likely have to show her how to play with), a couple of old, antique action figures still stuffed in the packaging, and a bagful of marbles decked out in nearly all the colours of the rainbow.

"I thought the person in charge was supposed to be working," Clementine jokes, handing Gil one of the action figures as he tries to bust the plastic toy out of its cardboard prison. After managing to unwrap the plastic and get past all of the tape keeping the thing sealed shut, he carefully places the box on the window ledge as he examines the thing for himself.

"Do you know what this is?" Gil questions, unable to contain his inner comic book geek as Clementine shrugs her shoulders.

"Looks like a toy to me," she remarks, more interested in flipping through the deck of cards than using her imagination with a couple of male dolls.

Rolling his eyes, Gil stands up from his seat and displays the thing as if it's some kind of prized possession; modeling it with his hand as he pretends to fly with it through the air. "This is the Flash – you know, Wally West? Famous super hero?" he tries to spark her memory, but by the deadpan look that Clementine's giving him, it doesn't seem to be working. "This guy was on the Justice League! He could run super fast without even breaking a sweat!"

"And I guess that's supposed to be impressive somehow?" she mutters sarcastically, flipping through some of the cards as she accidentally knocks the bag of marbles off the table. "Crap…" she moans, watching in vain as they start to scatter all over the floor. This is gonna take her forever to clean up!

Noticing the spillage for himself, and returning to his more quiet-natured ways, Gil offers to help as he sets the action figure down and scoops a bunch of them into his hands. Super heroes and villains are one of the few things that will actually get the boy talking somewhat, but even then it's only for a limited time. His inner child will sometimes come out like that – for a brief moment, he can forget about all of the walkers and just enjoy himself for a change. He wouldn't give up that one little spark of joy for anything in the world.

Hearing the muffled whimpers of the week's old newborn, Clementine hands off the marble bag to Gil as she sits on top of the desk and tries to rock the child back to sleep; humming a tune that her mother used to sing to her back when she was still around. Her vocals were awful, but Clem never cared. It was always enough to send her off to a restful sleep, and now it seems to be working on the next generation here.

Stopping himself briefly as he listens to her go at it, Gil finds himself looking over and watching the scene for himself.

"Is he your little brother?" he asks, quieting down a little bit as Clementine puts a finger to her lips. Whispering this time, he apologetically nods as he goes back to picking up the marbles. "Sorry… so, is he? I wasn't sure when I saw him."

Finishing the tune as AJ's eyes start to close once more, Clementine hesitates before slowly shaking her head. "It's… a long story," she admits, not even knowing where she would start even if she wanted to. "We've been looking after him for a little while now. His parents died, so… we're doing our best to raise him right."

Falling awfully quiet at that, Gil lowers his head steadily before turning back to pick up the few pieces that remain sprawled out on the floor. Clementine notices this sudden change in behaviour, but chooses not to bring it up for fear of just upsetting him somehow. The family just got here, after all – she doesn't want to piss them off already.

Digging through the drawer some more, Clementine opens up a filing cabinet filled with various old documents that sound boring just by looking at the title. Carver may have created a pretty sophisticated system for what it was worth, but she knows that even he couldn't have printed these off. These packages were likely made well before the dead started coming back to life.

However, one folder in particular catches her attention as she opens up a heavier one and smiles at what's inside.

"Hey," she remarks, trying to get the boy's attention as she jingles a set of keys around in her hands. "Why don't we go do a little exploring?"

* * *

"Okay… now lift your end a little bit more! That's it…" Jane instructs through gritted teeth, trying to keep herself from puking as the smell of Carver's caved-in face assaults her nostrils. The bugs have followed the body as she and Randy have started dragging it out to the parking lot.

Finding himself to be a lot weaker than normal due to an enormous lack of food, Randy struggles as he tries to move the legs up ahead, but somehow the duo manage to bring Carver out to the first parked car that they see. Dropping the corpse onto the pavement, Jane and Randy both wipe their hands on their pants before flipping Carver over onto his stomach. They've both seen their fair share of gruesome things over their brief lifetimes, but this almost certainly makes it to the top of that list.

"Good thing we checked, huh?" Randy comments as they prepare to turn away, but not before he stops moving and sighs in sadness. "God damn it… look," he indicates, pointing over to an overturned trash can as Jane follows his gaze.

The contents of the trash have spilled out, but the gruesome thing is that a walker is chowing down onto a fully grown raccoon that must've tried searching the bin for a meal. Its fur is all matted in blood as it stays there; motionless as the roamer picks at its bones.

 _At least they don't turn,_ Jane realizes, refusing to look at the baby racoons that are hidden right behind the mother. The fucker didn't even leave the children behind for scraps…

"Don't," she tells him, blocking his path as he looks on in confusion. "This guy's not hurting anybody – leave him be. Better to save the bullets for when you really need them."

Randy definitely doesn't appreciate the idea of a walker still being kept alive just outside of the walls, but he nods in acceptance anyways upon realizing that she's probably right. There could be some more in the area that neither of them know about, and a gunshot would alert them right to their presence in an instant. Releasing his hold on the hilt of his weapon, Randy takes one last look at the raccoon family before venturing back inside.

He's going to make sure that his own loved ones don't suffer the same fate.

"We couldn't help but notice something about the walls on the way over here," he explains, inviting Patricia to join them out in front as she clues in to what they're talking about. "You see the west portion over here? The one blocking this comic book store? It's coming apart a little bit," he mentions, tapping on the thin piece of metal; cringing when he accidentally causes a small portion of it to collapse. "…umm… sorry about that… I can fix this, no problem!"

Looking visibly annoyed at having to add another improvement to the already huge list, Jane sighs as she picks up a piece of plywood and tries holding it up against the fence.

"What are you doing?" Patricia asks, curious as Jane hops the broken down portion of the wall and tries to measure the thing with her hands.

Furrowing her brow in concentration, Jane tries to explain herself while also visualizing what the next steps should be. "I figured that I might as well reinforce this bad boy some more with some extra wooden support beams like before…"

"I thought you said that you had never been here before."

Shooting her head straight up at that, Jane tries to brush it off as just a slip of the tongue before either of them suspect anything. Secretly, and she hadn't told Clementine this yet, she's really been yearning for a small group to just stay here and hold out for as long as they can. By "small group", her ideal number would be two, but after all the heartbreak that Clementine had to endure just nine days earlier, she had figured that letting her decide the fate of the three new people would be the least she could do to try and make amends. Unfortunately for Jane, it hadn't exactly been the answer she was hoping for.

Feeling a little hot under the collar, Jane keeps her head down as she continues to line up the wooden board against the sheet metal. "I've seen something like this before, that's all," she mentions, watching as Randy moves down a ways in order to inspect something for himself. Once he's out of earshot, Jane decides to voice her concerns with his wife. "Is he always so unapproachable?"

Looking thinly concerned as she watches him bank a left down the wall without another word, Patricia sighs deeply as she runs her hand through her hair. "These last few months have been pretty hard on him; on all of us," she discloses, flinching slightly when Jane accidentally bangs the wood against the wall a little too loudly. "There have been a few places that we tried to stay in before coming here, and none of them have really worked out in the end. Usually the people inside would start trying to fight each other over who got to be in charge, who got the last meals, that kind of thing."

Nodding silently, Jane continues to listen as she tries to tighten a bolt using her bare fingers. She gets about halfway before having to stop, unable to fasten it further without a wrench. There's gotta be some tools somewhere in the camp – she had seen Troy carrying around a tool belt one time back when she… made an _offer_ to him for getting out of the camp. She wasn't proud of it, but Jane had known that it could've been an outlet; a ticket out in case things really started taking a turn for the worse.

Turns out, just like Patricia had inferred, Howe's became like most of the camps around. Hopefully they won't be making the same mistakes.

"Randy was on the receiving end of a scuffle in one of the camps and nearly had his nose broken. If Gil and I hadn't been there…" she trails off, shuddering as she leans up against the wall; wrapping her arms around her stomach as her sweater keeps her warm from the elements. This sure beats the living shit out of travelling in the snow. "…but that's all over now, thankfully. You and the little one are a much brighter sight, Jane, I just wanted you to know. I can't tell you how relieved we were to see some friendly people for a change."

"Friendly, huh? Never thought that someone would say that about the two of us."

"It's true," she insists, watching as she finishes up the measurements and moves a bucket of nails over as a reminder to try and fix this up later. "I think you and the girl may have saved our lives. We wouldn't make it another night out there."

"…Clementine's the one to thank, not me," Jane mutters, spotting something close by as she whistles for Randy to get back and latches onto Patricia's arm. "We might want to get inside," she suggests, noticing that a small pack of walkers has stumbled onto the scene. They haven't really spotted any of the survivors just yet, but it's generally a better idea to be cautious about these kinds of things.

Noticing the bespectacled man walking towards them, Patricia gasps as Jane widens her eyes a little bit. Through Randy's black hockey sweater, the two women can see a thick splatter of blood soaking through the sleeve. With the man looking extremely nervous and in some pretty intense pain, Jane's first reaction is what you might expect.

"Randy…" Jane says lowly reaching towards her pocket as he quickly shakes his head to diffuse the situation.

"I ain't bitten, damn it! Keep your weapon sheathed!" he exclaims, looking rather nervous as Jane continues to keep her hand down at her belt level. "Ugh… I cut myself on a copper rod – you know, those metal things that stick out in the blocks of concrete for buildings. Didn't even notice until it was too late…" he grunts, wincing a little bit as his wife rolls up the shirt sleeve; revealing a nasty-looking cut that's slashed deep near his elbow. "See? No bite, but it hurts like hell…"

"We need to get you cleaned up," Patricia comments, looking back to Jane as she finally seems convinced. Knowing that this is her cue to try and find something that'll stop the bleeding from getting any worse, she motions for the two of them to follow her into a room that Carver's group used as a sort of medical station. Carlos was forced to work in here at one point, if she can remember correctly.

However, her hopes are dashed as she tries to twist the doorknob, only to get rejected as they're all locked outside. "Fucking typical…" she swears, trying to shoulder her way inside as the door buckles a little bit. Not enough for them to get inside, though. "We're gonna need the keys to this place. There's an office upstairs where Carver kept them for the entire hardware store – I'll go see if I can find them."

Confused, Patricia looks about ready to ask who this _Carver_ person is, but Jane just shakes her head and starts to sprint away.

"Don't worry about it!" she hollers, taking the steps two at a time in order to get there faster. "Just keep pressure on that wound – you can't let him bleed out or we're fucked! Maybe he left some bandages in here…"

Nodding and realizing that keeping her husband in capable hands is better than grilling her further on the matter, Patricia keeps one of her hands on top of the cut as Randy squeamishly squints his eyes and sucks in a sharp intake of breath. Some blood squirts in between her fingers as she puts more pressure on the opening, but blood isn't something that she really turns her nose away from anymore. The girl may appear timid upon first glance, but she's really just as capable as most when it comes to tolerance.

Shakily, Randy looks over at his wife as he's forced to lean his back up against the wall. "She lied to us, Trish. They've been here before…"

"Shh… I know, honey, I know. But don't worry about that right now, alright? Just try to rest up – we'll take care of that wound as soon as we can."

"You don't understand – this place… they didn't show us the back portion of it!" he exclaims, causing Patricia to pause in confusion. "There are bodies literally _everywhere_ back there… I don't think this place is as safe as they're telling us. It was like something out of a nightmare," he tells her, startling the woman as she raises a hand to her mouth.

Puzzled, Randy raises an eyebrow at his wife as she asks, "Where is he? Where's Gil?!"

* * *

 _AN: Dayumm, I didn't expect this story to get so many reviews right off the bat! Especially considering it's based off of characters who we know pretty much next to nothing about just yet O_o But this is a good thing, definitely. I'm trying to come up with some interesting stuff to write about for this, so hopefully you guys can bear with me._

 _Now, for some of the reviews…_

 _Lol maybe it will be more than six chapters, depending on how successful this becomes and how much material I can think of. You've called my bluff, apparently XD We're just gonna have to see!_

 _From what I gathered from the internet, I think "Gil" has just the one "L". At least, that's what it says on here for the characters list, so that's what I'm going with. And yeah, the family seems fairly friendly, and although I kind of distrusted Randy at the start (mainly due to Jane and Clem's paranoia matching my own), I get the feeling that they're a pretty decent bunch. I mean, he kind of has to carry a gun with him in order to try and protect his family, and it's not as if Clem and Jane can't defend themselves if it comes to it._

 _So yeah, those are my thoughts on the matter. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I'll be back with the next one soon!_


	3. An offer

"Through here, c'mon!" Clementine hurries him along, with Gil bringing up the rear as he timidly looks behind him to check if the coast is clear. While Clem had mentioned just a little while ago that they'd have pretty much free reign over where they could go throughout the hardware store, he's not so certain that this is a very safe place to be. It's all dark and spooky down in this hallway, with no windows around except for those up above with the skylights.

And there's something rather ominous about this abandoned radio charging station, too – the lights are flickering on it, and there's a bloody handprint on the desk underneath. Gil can't help but wonder what exactly happened in this place, and by the slightly more nervous look on Clementine's face now that they've gone through, he reckons that the girl knows that something might be up.

Still, in order to keep up appearances, Clementine nods her head as she pulls Gil along to pick up the pace; still carrying the little bundle in her arms.

"Maybe we should head back," Gil mentions, shaking off her grip as he skids to a halt. "This place doesn't really look like a good idea…"

Looking as if she almost wants to agree with him, Clementine stops for a moment as well as she takes a look at the different directions they can head towards. Truth be told, those crates and the radio station were the farthest that she's ever been – past this point, it's completely new territory. Mainly, it's just the thrill and curiosity of seeing what else Carver may have been hiding from her group that's keeping her going, but seeing the once heavily occupied fort being suddenly turned into a ghost town within a matter of two weeks… it's a little frightening.

After Carver was killed, and Troy was left for dead, the last thing that Clem remembers about the people living here was that a bunch of them were up on the roof; fighting to defend Howe's from an onslaught of walkers. A number of them had machine guns, but most of the people up top she didn't even recognize. She didn't see Tavia anywhere, and the few that had stopped to talk to her were those whose names she didn't catch. There was that one girl who was complaining about Sarah with presumably her older sister, that big guy with the beard and glasses, the Asian man who was criticising Tavia for smoking, and then the other kid who was on guard duty. Along with Hank, who was shot in the chest by Alvin, there was nobody else that Clementine really knew or even cared about.

So what happened to them?

"If we're gonna be living here," she remarks, looking back to Gil as he starts getting the heebie-jeebies, "don't you think we should know about where everything is? We can't be afraid of this place if this is our home now."

Mulling it over, and being under the impression that his family had meant to stay here long-term when they had approached the gate in the first place, Gil reluctantly nods as Clementine heads for a door on the other side of the room. Pulling out the set of keys, she tries three different ones before finally placing the correct one inside the slot.

And all at once, she suddenly wishes that she had just listened to Gil and turned around.

* * *

"God damn it, Clem…" Jane mutters bitterly, not wanting any ill-will to befall the eleven year old after all that transpired between the two of them, but still feeling irritated after she practically tosses Carver's office upside down – all in a vain attempt to find a key to the medical station.

Having had to dump entire filing cabinets along with the desk onto the floor, spilling out most of their contents only to find nothing worthwhile inside, Jane tries not to feel discouraged about the situation. Bite or not, Randy will die if he doesn't get that cut taken care of. She's not so sure that this place will even have the medical supplies that they'll need – what if Tavia and the remnants of Carver's group had taken all of it with them? It wouldn't be surprising, seeing's how they would know exactly where to look in order to find these damn keys.

 _But what if they had gotten rid of the keys so that nobody else could get inside?_ Jane ponders, going over a thousand different scenarios at once as her brain starts picking up deadly outcomes. Keys or not, though, Randy needs that treatment in order to not get sick, so she exits the office and heads back down the stairs.

Although, a dark, little voice in the back of her head is suggesting that it could be much easier just to kill the guy so as to not waste any supplies…

Hunting knife in hand, Jane heads straight over to the couple… and lodges her weapon into the slot of the doorway, pushing against its force as she ignores their questioning stares. Killing Randy probably wouldn't sit well with the rest of his family, not to mention that he hasn't really wronged her or Clementine in any way.

"Come on, you son of a bitch…" she grunts, jamming the knife further as she tries to move it up and down against the lock. With a little bit of luck, she may be able to get them inside.

"It's not quite as bad as it seems, Trish," Randy tries to reassure her, though failing to do so as he notices her hand caked in his own blood. Still though, it wouldn't hurt to try. "Really, hon, all I'd probably need are a few paper towels and I'd be – "

"Just stop it, Randy. We both know that's not gonna work. Just let Jane do her thing here, alright? We're gonna get you all fixed up in no time at all," she states firmly, looking appreciatively over at Jane even though Randy's starting to doubt her sincerity. She wouldn't be trying to help if she didn't care about their wellbeing, that much is for certain, but clearly the woman has some trust issues on deck.

Along with some lying problems, apparently. There's no way that Jane had told them the truth about only being here for a short while – how else would she know exactly where to look in order to find the things they needed?

Patricia, for her part, is trying to keep her own worries concealed as well. Not concerning Jane, but rather on the wellbeing of her son. He had taken off with that girl so quickly after coming inside, and it's been at least a couple of hours since she's seen him. When she had mentioned earlier about Gil needing to make some friends, Patricia didn't exactly mean that he should take off and out of their sight. It was bad enough when they almost lost him back in Boston, when a crazed woman at the roller rink had tried to pilfer him away and take off out west through the city, and ever since, whenever the boy isn't around, she can't help but be terrified of the possibilities. Her imagination's running wild, and before she even realizes it, Trish's bottom lip is quivering in fear.

Unable to console her due to dealing with his own pain, Randy squeezes his hand into a fist as he waits for Jane to get the door open.

With one last shove, Jane nearly cuts herself with her own knife as she finally hears that beautiful clicking sound; unlocking the door as she pretty much breaks the lock that held it in place. Although that's a bit of an annoyance, for the moment it's just a relief as she steps inside and starts examining the shelves.

Her hunch had unfortunately been correct. There's barely anything left in here except for one half-used first aid kit, a couple of towels and some bandages. An unopened bottle of peroxide remains, thankfully, but they're lucky to have found anything remotely useful at all. Jane's actually surprised that they didn't pilfer everything and take this stuff before making a hasty exit, but she suspects that the pressure of escaping the herd must've caused them to leave certain things behind. That's also most likely the reason that there were still some of the canned goods and baby formula left, along with the greenhouse barely even being touched. It's one of the few places in Howe's that actually doesn't have any blood stains surrounding it.

"Oh thank god," Patricia whispers as Jane snatches onto the first aid kit; carefully taking it off the shelf as she pops the clips open and takes a peek inside. As Patricia prepares the peroxide in order to disinfect the open wound, Jane hands her a sewing needle and some string from the pack as she watches her go to work. "Here, Randy… this should help to stop the blood flow. Jane, could you take that towel and hold it down for a moment? I need to grab some water from my pack."

"Yeah… sure thing," she agrees, nodding as Patricia gives her a wide smile and darts out of the medical room, leaving just Jane and Randy alone as he sees the red liquid starting to soak through.

Adjusting his arm a little bit so that it'll be more comfortable, even though he knows the disinfectant will burn like a motherfucker, Randy sighs as he longingly glances at the door; waiting for his wife to come back so that things can get a little less awkward.

"I should've just told him to stay…" he remarks absentmindedly, trying to make it a little less quiet in order to ease the tension in the room. So far, it isn't working. "I've always wanted to keep Gil away from things like that body we found; didn't want his childhood to be completely ripped away from him, you know? If I could at least grant him that for a little amount of time, then maybe I could say that I'd done my job right…"

Silently listening to him speak in melancholy, Jane just continues to hold the towel around his arm as she wonders why he would open up about this kind of thing. After all, it's only been a day that they've all known each other, and it's not as if she's feeling the need to spill her guts to the first person around. Why does he feel that way? Or is there some ulterior motive going on here?

Tying one loose end of the towel into a tight knot, Jane relinquishes her hold as she leans back against the empty supply shelf. She too is lost in her own thoughts, mainly about Clem and AJ and how well they're doing out here, but she can't help but feel that worrying about them too much would defeat the original purpose of why she brought them here in the first place. Clem can take care of herself, and Jane was almost alarmed after the whole rest stop incident that she may have just taken the baby and left her behind.

A part of her actually kind of thinks that that's probably what she deserved.

"I know that he's going to see these things eventually… death, walkers, what have you… but that ain't the life that I want for him. I want Gil to be happy; to actually be a kid for once and have the time of his life," Randy trails off, making Jane's skin crawl a little with how eerily he reminds her of Kenny. "Maybe that's too much for me to be asking for, but it… it shouldn't be… That's part of the reason why Trish and I decided to check this place out, actually."

Sparking her interest a little bit, Jane brings her gaze up to find that Randy's been looking directly at her for the past minute. Blinking a few times, he continues, with this time taking a more accusing tone.

"I don't know why you wouldn't tell us the truth about staying here, or what you girls have actually done to survive… but from what I can see so far, the two of you are pretty capable in your own right. That baby, though, might be a different story."

"One day here, and you're already telling us what we should be doing?" Jane questions, feeling a little miffed that Randy's getting all up in her business. "Look, bub, we've been taking care of that kid since he was born – AJ would be dead were it not for Clem and I. You don't have a clue what we had to go through just to keep him breathing!"

Arching an eyebrow, Randy motions with his head out back as he asks her a simple, yet challenging question at the same time. "And what exactly is gonna happen when the little guy runs out of baby formula? Do you even know where to find any more?"

Stunned at the revelation as she opens her mouth to protest, Jane narrows her eyes and lowers her gaze back to the floor; realizing that he may have a point. Despite knowing that Howe's would have the formula here, at least enough to last him a few more weeks before they'd have to venture out to find more, it was only going to be a matter of time.

Taking her silence as a _no_ , Randy sighs before taking a lighter approach. After all, without her and Clementine allowing them inside, they too wouldn't have a clue of where to go next. He and his family were down on their luck out in the forests, just barely scraping by on a daily basis. Without a roof over their heads, the clan of three was becoming desperate.

If they had been denied, Randy was prepared to try and come back with a vengeance – no way was he going to let a chance like this go by.

"Look… I know we haven't crossed paths with each other for very long, and me telling you about your business is probably throwing you for a loop – "

"That's putting it mildly."

"…but do you really expect a little girl and yourself to be able to raise a baby by yourselves? Have you ever had to take care of someone who depends on you for everything like this?" he asks in a kinder tone, causing Jane to lower her guard just a tiny bit. She's still not entirely sure what to make of this man, but with him in a vulnerable position like this, it's hard for the woman not to feel sympathy for Randy.

Despite Jaime being a few years younger than her, Jane never really had to take care of her like she's been having to for AJ. Her parents were around for that duty, and staying at home for babysitting duty while their folks were out doesn't exactly count as a full-time parenting position.

"No," she tells him, begrudgingly admitting defeat as she shakes her head. "I've never had to do something like this before – taking care of a helpless, little baby. Clem's got a bit of a knack at making him more comfortable, but that's pretty much the extent of it. Neither of us really have a clue about what we're doing."

"Alright then… well, why don't I propose something, then?" he suggests, strongly urging Jane to consider this request. "Patricia and I know how to raise a child – we went through a similar thing in the past. We can help the both of you with this. I could try to build a nursery in one of the rooms on the main floor – you know, a crib, a rocking chair, that kind of thing."

"What are you suggesting here, exactly?" Jane inquires, folding her arms across her sternum as she leans off of the shelf.

Pausing for an instant, Randy lets his question sink in as Jane widens her eyes in realization. Randy's not just offering to build some materials for the child, but also something else entirely.

"Patricia and I can take AJ off your hands," he proposes, clearly having been thinking this over for a while now. "You could still be with him obviously, since it's not as if he can really go anywhere on his own. But if the time comes… if we do end up having to go our separate ways… maybe it'd be best if he went with us. I think a little guy like that might need a mother and father to look after him. Someone who's been there before."

Something about this conversation isn't sitting right with the short-haired survivor, and it's not just to do with her internal debate about AJ. Sure, Patricia and Randy seem like the type who would be able (under normal circumstances) to provide the baby with a good home. A great one, actually, judging by how close-knit the two of them seem to be.

But this is more to do with their own son, and the questions she's been raising in her head about him ever since they arrived. It seemed foolish and inconsiderate to ask of them at the time, seeing's how at first glance it might even appear to be a little racist if taken in a certain light. But if he's asking something so personal as to take care of Alvin Junior for them, then she has to know the truth about the boy for herself.

"I understand this is a difficult thing to think about, but please… just talk it over with the girl, alright? We'd really appreciate it if you considered this," Randy mentions in a heartfelt tone, knowing that Patricia had been listening in as she finally arrives with the water bottle. Handing it over to her husband, Patricia unwraps the towel and sets it down on the floor; laying it flat at a dark smear of red stains the once pristine surface.

She really doesn't have any qualms about looking after the baby, despite not appreciating Randy going and saying this stuff with her not present at the time. But they had been looking for another addition to the family for a while now, and with her condition it would be impossible to have a baby under normal circumstances.

She's never once mentioned this to Jane, and more than likely never will, but Patricia has been infertile for a very long time now.

These troubling thoughts plague her mind as she gets set to work on Randy's arm; dousing a fresh towel in some of the medicine as she places it over the wound. The man inhales shrilly as he quickly shuts his eyes closed and bares his teeth, feeling the burn against his flesh as he tries to hold himself together.

Ready on deck with the stitches in hand, Jane waits for Patricia to finish up with the first steps as she offers the materials out to her. "So… about Gil…" she trails off, purposely neglecting to answer his question about AJ. "Is he really – "

"He's our son."

Taken aback by the sudden outburst as Randy sends a warning glare her way, Jane isn't deterred as she continues, hearing Patricia sigh as she gazes sadly at the wound. Trish had known that the conversation would come up sooner rather than later, but not under these parameters.

Frowning as she decides to make it seem a little less confrontational, Jane continues as if Randy hadn't even reacted at all. "I'm just wondering about _your_ ability to raise a baby on your own, because from what I can see, Gil isn't really even your own flesh and – "

"He's. Our. Son! End of discussion!" Randy barks, only simmering down when Patricia tells him to quiet down to not risk breaking out of the stitches that she's using on him right now. Between the pain he's enduring along with Jane's observations, it's not really a wonder why he would act like this, but that's pretty much all the info that Jane needs for right now.

For right now at least, until a day comes where she and Clementine really start to question whether they can truly be there for AJ, her answer is most likely gonna be no.

"I'm gonna check around back," she excuses herself, brushing the parents off without any hesitation as she heads back out into the foyer.

* * *

Any reflex to gag from the overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke from the other room has been instantly overcome – overcome by an even greater urge to head on back inside. All at once, Clementine wants nothing more than to head out somewhere else, preferably as far away from here as they can possibly go. She nearly drops AJ to the ground as she witnesses the scene for herself.

"Well," she murmurs, quiet enough so that Gil can't hear her, "at least now I know what happened to the herd…"

There has to be hundreds of the creatures out in the back here, with nearly all of them having been put down or slaughtered like animals as pounds upon pounds of rotting, decaying flesh leave a permanent stain upon the earth. Limbs and other body parts stick out like tree branches as Clementine sees the damage – some are slashed off, others have their heads riddled with bullet holes, and some even have their noggins completely removed from their shoulders. The few that are still moving around are only able to do so on their stomachs, but growl and snap their grotesque jaws at the children upon noticing their presence.

Gil, who's yet to see anything because of Clementine being in the way, scoots around her and widens his eyes. His parents told him before how these things weren't people any longer, but the looks on some of their faces tell him that even in death, they must've been terrified.

"I've… I've never seen it this… this bad before…" he remarks quietly, keeping close to the cement wall behind him as Clementine looks over. "Did you know about this? Did you know these things were back here?"

Not wanting to alarm him any further, but also knowing that the cat is pretty much out of the bag at this point, Clementine considers her response before deciding just to answer him truthfully. "This was a part of a herd that came through this place a couple weeks back," she tells him, noting the sheer number of brutalized walkers that are now littering the grass. "I didn't know they were back here, but the people who lived here before… Carver's group… they must've shot them so that they wouldn't chase them away. Doesn't really look like it worked, though."

"So… you have been here before… That's why you knew where everything was," Gil concludes as Clementine lightly nods her head. "But… why wouldn't you say anything? I don't understand."

"It's hard to trust people out here, especially if a bunch of strangers just walk up to your front door. We were going to wait until we knew for sure," she reveals, being more straight-forward with the boy as he tries to put all the pieces together. He's never really understood why people wouldn't trust others, especially during times of crisis like this, but there's still a lot about the world that he doesn't know yet.

Clementine's had to learn these truths the hard way, and it's made her a lot less naïve than she once was. She hasn't exactly lost the hope that things might get better someday, and that she might be able to live sort of like a normal person again, but this past month in particular has really shaken that belief. So many people she had known were turning on each other in such a short span of time, and so many had died in so many stupid ways. There was no need for any of it.

And yet, in the face of all of this tragedy, Clementine has actually started to get a feeling that the people she's with now – Jane, AJ, Randy, Patricia and Gil – maybe they could be a fresh start. Without the immediate threat of having to run from walkers, and being able to just sleep at night knowing that these walls can protect them, she's already felt a weight being unloaded off of her shoulders.

If only Jane could really feel the same way.

Clementine is about to explain further on how they had come to be here the first time around, when all of a sudden a certain walker in the crowd catches her eye. Turning around to face the beast fully, she feels shocked to see the person as a half-eaten walker sandwich – her bushy hair dimmed with blood, her skin all grey and peeling, and her eyes completely glossed over in the murky shade of death. Tavia, it seems, never made it out with the rest of her group.

Knowing that leaving her to wander like this would be wrong, no matter how poorly she may have been treated under her watch, Clementine turns back towards Gil for a moment and asks if he'll hold AJ for a little bit. Surprised, considering that he's never held an infant before in his entire life, Gil hesitantly accepts as the boy squirms and cries in his arms – clearly wanting his big sister back as she wanders around the group of walkers.

"What are you doing?" Gil asks in confusion, feeling a little shaken up as he tries to calm the child down. Not getting a response, he frowns a little bit before gently rocking him up and down like a sailboat. Or at least, _his version_ of gently.

Pulling out a screwdriver, seeing's how Clementine would prefer not to waste too many bullets right now, she wanders over towards Tavia as the woman hungrily lurches towards her at a snail's pace. The girl's got enough room to make a break for it in case things get hairy, but that likely won't be a problem. She's only going to need a few seconds.

"Nobody deserves this… no matter who they are," she whispers, feeling a little sick to her stomach as she notices that both of Tavia's legs have been chewed off along with a part of her arm.

With one fell swoop, Clementine jams the screwdriver right up above Tavia's eyeball as it gets lodged into her brain; ending her undead career as she falls dead once again.

* * *

"…you're sure that we're going the right way? This seems awfully familiar."

"You say that about everywhere we go!" the redhead responds with a smirk, poking the man in the ribs as she beckons for him to follow along. "Besides, we ain't even out of the state yet, so just hold your horses. It ain't exactly easy to get down south on foot."

Grumbling as his stomach churns with regret, the bald-headed man frowns as he stops to wait for their companion. "I'm sort of glad we _are_ going like this, though," he mentions, getting a saddened nod out of the woman as he looks over his shoulder to spot their Russian companion. "Arvo, you gotta keep up, man! It's too dangerous out here for you to get lost!"

Constantly limping due to the leg brace that supports him, the bespectacled man breathes heavily before looking up ahead and waving his hand around; trying to signal that he's alright. Communication between him, Mike and Bonnie has been difficult, not only due to the language barriers, but also because of his gut reaction back at the half-built house. Pulling the trigger was a terrible thing, but in his mind, it was an accident, and nothing more.

However, he's not entirely sure if his travelling companions also saw it that way. They've been kind of off and on with keeping their distance around him. That bullet should've been meant for the bearded man who beat him half to death, not for the little girl who tried to help…

"…I'm glad you didn't end up cutting him loose, now that I think about it," Bonnie remarks, heading side by side with Mike as they walk on ahead. Glancing down at her thoughtfully, Bonnie explains herself under the big guy's curious stare. "In his condition, there wasn't any way he would've made it. I'm sorry that I reacted so harshly… it's just, after seeing her bleedin' out like that, I couldn't believe that we'd still be…"

"Stop," Mike shakes his head, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder in order to prevent the guilt from growing stronger. "What happened, happened. Remember what you told me? There's no use in trying to change the things that have already gone down. You just gotta toss it over your shoulder, and move forward."

A small smirk tugs at the corners of her lips as she listens to him speak. "You sound like some sort of motivational speaker – you do realize that, don't you?"

"Well, you can just call me Martin Luther King the third, then."

Rolling her eyes in amusement, Bonnie snaps a twig under her boot as they come across a small split in the path. With three different directions to take, and not a map on hand anywhere, the survivors appear physically exhausted and discouraged. So far, their plan to head down to Texas hasn't exactly gone according to how they imagined it would. With that truck working just outside the house, it wouldn't have been as much of a problem, but that also meant that they'd be leaving Kenny, Jane and the kids with basically nothing.

To Mike, leaving the kids to basically die was the one thing that was truly holding him back. Were it not for the escalating drama and tension among the group, he probably wouldn't have gone along with the plan at all.

"Look here," Bonnie remarks, pointing out a road sign as Arvo picks up the rear. "Most of it's been weathered away, but from the looks of it, there could be a few places for us to check out. Well, why don't we – "

"No."

"Mike, didn't you just finish sayin' how we need to toss that shit over our – "

"It's not about that, Bonnie," he interrupts yet again, clearing his throat as he explains himself. "You saw those walkers – what's to say there aren't more of them around? And who knows? There might be bandits who've snuck into the place and taken over."

Knowing that that's not the real reason at all, Bonnie tenderly raises her hand to Mike's cheek and lightly brushes her fingers against his skin; just barely avoiding his torn ear as he sighs in defeat.

"I don't want to see anyone else getting hurt – we've been through enough of that already…"

"I know, Mike, I do, but…" she trails off, turning to Arvo as he awaits for them to reach a decision, "maybe in this case, it'd be better if we took a chance. Believe me, this is the last place I'd pick for us to rest our heads, but the place was filled with supplies, you and I both know that. You just have to trust me on this, the both of y'all."

Glancing over to the Russian as he says _yes_ in his native language, Mike sighs deeply before shutting his eyes; feeling warm inside as Bonnie rubs his arm through his sweater. Her support has meant the world to him over the past week or so, and he's not entirely sure what would've transpired if she hadn't been there with him.

"…I'll try to keep an open mind about it," he comments, watching as Bonnie smirks in appreciation. Rather than grill her further about why they can't just keep heading south like they were on schedule to do, he figures that trusting Bonnie's instincts might be a good way to go, too.

Besides, at this point, what do any of them really have to lose than each other?

* * *

 _AN: Howdy, my peeps! Just wanted to give a quick shout-out here and tell you that Epic Hobo Chuck, a member on this site, has launched a forum entitled "_ _ **The Official Walking Dead Forum**_ _"._

 _He made it himself in an effort to bring people on here together to talk about the game, and just to get to know people better in general, and it looks really promising! I can't put a link to it in this chapter because I know it won't work, but here are some instructions on how to get there._

 _At the top of your screen, click "Forum", then go to "Games". Click on "W" for Walking Dead, and then you should spot it in the list of forums over there. Be sure to drop by and say hello! He'd really appreciate it, and if you're having trouble finding the forum, just drop him a message._


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